ROSAT North Ecliptic Pole Survey X-Ray Source Catalog

The sky around the NEP, at RA (J2000.0) = 18h00m00s, Declination (J2000.0) = +66d33'39", has the deepest exposure of the entire ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS). The NEP is an undistinguished region of moderate Galactic latitude, b = 29.8 degrees, and hence it is suitable for compiling statistical samples of both Galactic and extragalactic objects.

The authors have made such a compilation in the 80.6 square degrees region surrounding the NEP. Their sample fully exploits the properties of the RASS, since the only criteria for inclusion are source position and significance, and it yields the deepest large solid angle contiguous sample of X-ray sources to date. They find 442 unique sources above a flux limit ~2 x 10^-14 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 in the 0.5-2.0 keV band.